Curious about home birth

A friend said she was planning a home birth with a midwife and it boggled my mind. No judgement, just know nothing about it. I would be so nervous if something went wrong not having a team of drs around. So, those of you that home-birth.. why? And no, not talking about epidural at all..

Comments (27)

I was at a birth center with just a midwife and a birth assistant so pretty much a home birth in a nicer home than mine. I did it because I had a low risk pregnancy and know the female body is able to birth its babies without interventions. I didn't want pitocin or any other hormones pushed on me, and was terrified of an epidural. I know so many hospital births result in emergency c section in this country that wouldn't have had to be without so many interventions that mess with the natural way of things. It was a loooooooong process (30 hours of contractions and 5 hours on and off pushing) but the exact birth experience I wanted and was right for me and my husband (and new son!)

I'm not sure why her doing that is so mind boggling. Given the history and age of the planet, more babies have probably been born at home than at hospitals. And with modern day midwife training being extremely extensive, I don't see what's so odd about it. I personally chose a hospital in case of an emergency and also for the awesome drugs. But if someone I knew did a home birth that wouldn't strike me as unusual in the least.

I wanted a home birth so so bad but my DF (dear fiancee) said no way. Glad I didnt because we woukd have ended up at hospital anyways and I caved and got the epidural after 12 hours. Now I am super pro epidural haha. But I think a home birth is so so beautiful.

I had 2 home births. The first one wasn't planned, we just couldn't get to the hospital in time. So knowing that my labors go fast, I planned a home birth for my May baby. A midwife is more qualified to attend a low risk vaginal birth then an OB. Midwives carry Med bags, and O2, and everything required to resuscitate a newborn. I loved my birth, but more then that, I loved being able to have all my prenatal appointments in my living room.

I would never do a home birth, yes women have birthed babies on their own for a long time, but they also have lost a lot of babies because of it.
I don't know why people dont use the technology and trained professionals we have today in order to increase their chances of having a healthy and safe delivery.
I had my son's shoulder gets stuck and needed my obgyn and three nurses to help when his face was turning blue.
They were able to monitor his heart beat to know when things were getting too dangerous for him and know if they needed to do a episiotomy.
1000 and 1 things could happen, and if you want a natural birth with no medicine, great but I think you should do so in a hospital where they have all necessary tools to help you deliver and help the baby afterwards.

I had an unplanned home birth. (Originally planned a hospital birth with a hospital midwife). I always wanted a home birth anyways but insurance wouldn't cover a home birth midwife. I wanted a home birth because I was low risk, I like being in my home environment, midwives are trained to deal with some of the emergencies related to birthing, I didn't want unnecessary medical intervention, and people have been giving birth at home for thousands of years. There are risks if you have a home birth or a hospital birth. In some countries, it's the norm for women to have home births, even encouraged by the medical community. Home births are only for normal, low risk pregnancies.

In the US we have been conditioned to fear birth. I talked over all the possible bad outcomes with my midwife and she had experienced them all. PP (previous poster) hemorrhage, unexpected breach, stuck baby, unresponsive baby, exhausted mom. It's all about education and risk management.

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